A Boutique Photography Studio

August 23, 2016

That day we got to run wild around our photography lab and play with the giant rolls of bubble wrap – or as we like to call it: “Work”.

You know when you order something online and it magically ends up in a box on your doorstep? That happens to us all the time. We custom order canvases and metal prints and gorgeous leather albums for our clients and in about a week, voila! There they are, beautifully crafted and carefully wrapped right there on our front porch. It’s been such a neat thing for our business and us personally to partner so closely with our lab. We’ve toured it with our kids (giant rolls of bubble wrap – modeled below by Linda … hello!!!) and had the privilege of meeting the people who create those products. We’ve watched their production and been absolutely blown away by the process (the heat transfer of images on metal like a giant ironing machine? SO cool!). So when we were asked to become marketing partners with them this past year, the first thing we said was “We’ve met these people and feel like we’ve got a personal connection to the lab. Wouldn’t it be great if the other thousands of photographers you serve felt the same way?” This is the project that came from that thought. We started by asking the employees to fill out a 2 page questionnaire. It was silly stuff, like “What would you do if you had 10 million dollars?” and “What was the last thing that made you laugh?”, but it gave such great insight into who each person was and revealed to us the best way to photograph them. We then came in for one day of shooting, choosing to photograph some with props we had them bring in front of a backdrop and some in various places around the lab. This location was just too good to resist. Looking good Mechell! Here’s Jason – head of customer service. As you can tell he’s a very serious guy. He rides his bike to work every morning, after which I think he showers??? As though anyone would know anyway. He’s on the phone all day!Were it not for these questionnaires we would never have learned that John, Production Manager, once caught a drumstick from the front row of a Metallica concert. Some people are just wild on the inside….and then there are people like Tari, who are wild and fun and everybody knows it!I love knowing the group of folks I get to chat with on the phone in customer service. Selicia (above) told me they’re supposed to be physically smiling while they talk on the phone, because the customer can hear that. I checked last time I called, and it was true. But then, I’m sure the delightful customers they get to talk to every day always make them want to smile, right?Wait. Who’s this guy? He doesn’t work here. Ugh!And then there’s our sweet friend Rowena, who is the Director of Marketing. She made it all happen and still managed to look like a model at the end of the day.

And here’s part of the final product! Now in every package we open from our lab we find a “trading card” featuring someone who was key in making our products a reality. We couldn’t show everyone in the blog post, but click here to see the complete group of employee features! http://www.blackriverimaging.com/brifamily#meet-our-family